Northwest Airlines Threatens to Replace Strikers Permanently

By MICHELINE MAYNARD and JEREMY W. PETERS

Published: August 26, 2005

Northwest Airlines said Thursday that it was considering giving permanent jobs to the 1,500 substitute workers it hired to replace striking mechanics. If all were hired, that would lock out the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which struck the airline one week ago.

''The hiring of permanent replacement workers is under discussion,'' Andrew C. Roberts, Northwest's senior vice president for operations, said in an e-mail message. The airline has not made a final decision on how many workers it might hire and has no timetable for doing so, he said.

In response, the union's executive director, O.V. Delle-Femine, said the airline was risking a clash between striking workers and the replacements who took their jobs.

''If they want to do it and when we ever come back, it will be a tremendous confrontation,'' Mr. Delle-Femine said in a telephone interview.

The airline's chief executive, Douglas M. Steenland, again said that Northwest may have to ask for more than the $1.1 billion it is seeking in wage and benefit cuts from all its unions, blaming record high prices for jet fuel and other costs.

The airline first made that disclosure in a securities filing last month, Mr. Steenland said by phone from his office in Eagan, Minn.

About 4,430 members of the mechanics' union struck Northwest early Saturday over the airline's bid for $176 million in concessions, including 2,000 job cuts, from the mechanics.

In their place, the airline deployed 1,200 mechanics, 400 contractors and 300 supervisors, and redesigned the work done by union members so that fewer workers were employed.

In the first five days of the strike, 33 percent of Northwest's flights were 15 minutes or more behind schedule, while the airline canceled 3 percent of its flights, according to an estimate by FlightStats, a consulting firm based in Portland, Ore. The union says the company's performance was much worse.

Northwest said union members could still have their jobs back if they wanted to cross picket lines like the one at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich., Northwest's major international hub.

The airline says it is willing to negotiate with the union, although no talks have been held and none are scheduled.

On Thursday, Mr. Delle-Femine said the union would not return to the bargaining table unless Northwest gave it an offer that did not include job cuts. Declaring the replacement workers to be permanent employees would have tremendous implications for both Northwest and the mechanics' union, as well as the airline industry and perhaps the entire labor movement, industry experts said.

The action essentially would bust the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which has represented mechanics and other workers at Northwest since 1998. But the move could backfire if it angers other unions, which until now have not honored the picket lines.

The issue of a lockout has been a matter of intense debate within the airline, senior company officials said Thursday. One reason is that Mr. Roberts's contingency plan contains no provisions for imposing a lockout or for dealing with its inevitable fallout.

But Northwest clearly has the right under federal law to lock out the strikers.

Under the Railway Labor Act, which has covered airline employees since 1936, companies have the right to lock out striking workers as long as the company remains willing to bargain. The lockout can remain in place even if negotiations subsequently resume.

If there is a settlement, the company must take back striking workers to replace any remaining temporary workers. It must also permit striking workers to replace any permanently hired workers who have not received the training required to hold their jobs.

A lockout ''will send a message that Northwest is intent on lowering costs and is willing to act decisively to do so,'' said Philip A. Baggaley, an airline industry analyst at Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. ''It would tend to reinforce their message that the company needs to do it one way or another and that it could end up in bankruptcy if they can't do it otherwise.''

Looming over Northwest and other troubled companies are changes in federal bankruptcy law that take place Oct. 17, limiting the amount of time companies have to restructure.

Lockouts like the one under discussion have been rare in the airline industry. The most recent one occurred at Eastern Airlines, where members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers went on strike in 1989. The strike never ended and Eastern ceased flying in 1991.

Many companies avoid lockouts because of the public relations nightmare that can erupt. And in the case of the AMFA, the union could easily argue that its strikers had been thrust into dire straits.

In contrast to other major unions like the machinists or the United Automobile Workers, the mechanics' union does not have a strike fund, and it has not taken workers out on strike since 1980. The union is accepting donations on its Web site, while union locals are planning fund-raisers this weekend to support the strikers.

But officials at other unions have been short on sympathy for the mechanics' union, a rebel work group that is not part of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and has earned the wrath of rival unions over the years by persuading their members to join its ranks.

One senior official at a union that is not honoring the mechanics' picket lines criticized AMFA for failing to permit its members to vote on Northwest's last offer. ''You have to trust the membership,'' the union official said.

Especially without a strike fund, the mechanics' union should not force its members to be dependent on ''someone putting nickels in a paper cup,'' the union official said.

Mr. Delle-Femine rejected that assertion on Thursday, saying the airline's last offer was ''not even worthy to take to the troops.''

By continuing to operate this week, Northwest has already beaten the union, said David Gregory, a professor of labor law at St. John's University in Queens.

If the airline gets through the next week without any major problems or safety issues, he said, ''the strike is essentially over.''

Photo: Eastern Airlines was the last airline to lock out workers, in this 1989 strike, which never ended. Eastern stopped flying in 1991. (Photo by Barton Silverman/The New York Times)

Chart: ''Work-Arounds''
In the last 25 years, strikes at most major airlines have been short. But, when the airlines hired workers to replace the striking employees, the strikes stretched on until collapsing or the company went out of business.

SOME MAJOR AIRLINE STRIKES

AIRLINE: Continental
UNIONS: Flight attendants
WORKERS REPLACED (NO)
WHAT HAPPENED: Supervisors worked in place of striking workers; the airline was able to operate at only about 50 percent of capacity.
DATES OF STRIKE: Dec. 5, 1980, to Dec. 21, 1980

AIRLINE: Northwest
UNIONS: Mechanics and baggage handlers
WORKERS REPLACED (NO)
WHAT HAPPENED: The airline canceled 60 percent of its flights during the strike.
DATES OF STRIKE: May 22, 1982, to June 25, 1982

AIRLINE: Continental
UNIONS: Mechanics, joined later by pilots and flight attendants
WORKERS REPLACED (YES)
WHAT HAPPENED: The airline filed for bankruptcy and laid off all of its employees, eventually hiring some of them back. It initially shut down but later resumed operations to about one-third of its domestic destinations.
DATES OF STRIKE: Aug. 13, 1983, to April 17, 1985 (machinists and flight attendants), and Sept. 15, 1985 (pilots)

AIRLINE: Eastern
UNIONS: Mechanics and baggage handlers, joined by pilots and flight attendants
WORKERS REPLACED (YES)
WHAT HAPPENED: The airline hired permanent replacement workers and kept flying. Eventually, flight attendants and pilots reached new agreements and were hired back. Over time, the strike and competition weakened the airline so much that it ceased operating.
DATES OF STRIKE: March 4, 1989, to Jan. 17, 1991 (airline goes out of business)